Overload: World of Flames
by Lunahras
Summary: <html><head></head>The day Reborn enters Tsuna's life is the day both of them find themselves confronted by hoards of strange people who should by any means not be there or even exist, that seem to know more than they should and that insistently try to force their way into their lives. Worse part is, they seem to be the only ones able to notice this predicament. SI gone wrong.</html>
1. Prologue

In an astral plane of existence, detached from time and space and away from any and all dimensions, a... person, one could say, sat in front of a desk, boredly observing the monitor before him. I could mention his name, but it would incomprehensible for a human mind, so instead we'll call him Steve.

You see, Steve absolutely hated his job. It was boring, monotone and didn't even pay well. He just sat there, from start to end of his shift and observed the monitor. At the end end of his shift, the mandatory report always had the same message: No abnormalities found.

Which was why it was perfectly understandable that his eyes were currently drooping and his mind shutting down. However, he was startled out of his almost-nap when a small beep reached his senses. He opened his eyes and looked at the monitor again. There were small points there, slowly moving towards the top of the screen and then disappearing.

Now, this wasn't an uncommon occurrence at all. The monitor always showed small dots that moved towards the edges. Not strange at all. What _was_ abnormal was the sheer quantity of the dots. They almost filled the entire screen. Discernible was only that none of them quite touched the upper edge, except for one specific point towards which all the dots where seemingly headed.

For a moment, all Steve could do was stare. Nothing like this had ever happened before. What in all worlds was going on?

That thought snapped him out of his stupor and he clumsily reached for the phone to his right, miraculously dialing the correct number. A nasal, female voice answered the phone on the other end.

"_Head of the Department of Soul Distribution-"_ was all she manged to say before she was cut off.

"This is the World of Humans Branch. There is something highly abnormal going on right now. Look for the scan signature of our Gate. I can't explain it otherwise!"

There was silence on the other end, then the sound of fingers tapping on a keyboard, then more silence.

"...and? What is it? What's going on?" he dared to ask in his impatience.

More silence. Then, _"There's a massive soul influx coming from the World of Humans. They're not being distributed properly and they're all entering a single Gate. The readings are also strange. It's..."_

"It's..." he urged.

A gasp, _"It's as if... as if the souls were completely fresh."_

"What do you mean? Why fresh?"

"_Many of them haven't undergone any process."_

His eyes widened, "Then..."

He could almost hear her stern nod, _"Yes. More than half the souls here haven't even left their bodies through proper means. These people haven't died. Moreover, the total sum... the number is ridiculous. And why aren't they being stopped at the Gate they're all heading towards...?_"

He fidgeted, "Um, so, what should I-"

"_Nothing. Thank you for notifying me. If anything else of note happens, please tell me promptly."_

"Of course."

She sighed heavily as she hung up, but wasted no time. Quickly, she searched for a certain number in a list pinned to the wall beside her and dialed it. She tapped on the floor impatiently.

"_Department of Soul Distribution, World of Flames Branch."_ said a soft but undoubtedly male voice.

"We have a problem."

"_If it's about the sudden massive influx, we know. We've been trying everything, but no matter what, the Gate won't close down. I was about to call you myself right about now."_

"Well, we have to do _something_."

"_But we can't! All the souls are entering our world and we can't do anything about it! But that's not really our only problem."_

A shiver of dread ran down her back, "What do you mean?"

"_They're not just entering the World of Flames normally. Many of them are just... just _appearing_ there. No rebirth, no reincarnation, no growing up in a new life, no nothing. And those who _are_ going through the proper process have somehow forgone the memory wipe. It's madness, I tell you! And we have no idea what's wrong!"_

She was still for a moment. Then, with some trepidation, she spoke, "Then... not only are they being taken from their world prematurely, but they're also all being inserted into a single world."

A moment of silence.

"_They WHAT?"_

She shook her head, even though he couldn't see her, "No matter. We have fix this quickly."

"_Well, I'm sorry! Let's see _you_ do a better job of closing the Gate!"_ She didn't say anything, just waited._ "...I apologize. I shouldn't talk like that to my boss. The stress' just getting to me, is all."_

"I understand. But still, our task is to regulate the flow of souls between the different worlds. We can't just give up. Do your best and see if there really isn't a way to fix this."

"_Yes, ma'am."_

She hung up, hoping against all hopes that they'd get this patched up properly soon.

Thirteen human hours later, all stray souls from the World of Humans had traversed into the World of Flames, in different timelines and alternate realities.

The moment they managed to close the Gate, however, all these timelines were merged into the main one at one specific point.

There was no fixing this now.

°#*&*§*&*#°

AN:

Yes, I know I should be working on Redemption. I am too! My muse just left me for a short vacation and then the plotbunnies actually gave me something I really liked, which just turned into this. It will probably be updated even more irregularily that Redmption and will mostly seem like a series of one-shots, but I found the idea great. Please tell me what you think!


	2. Life's Not Crazy Enough

Sawada Tsunayoshi was no stranger to weirdness. He had once managed to set himself on fire at age five, an event he had scratched up to his overactive imagination years later. Sometimes, he also seemed to feel sunshine pouring out of his crush and school idol Sasagawa Kyouko whenever she smiled, which he just ignored in the hopes that said overactive imagination would go away.

And let's not start with his father. That man was the king of weird.

But this.

This.

This was most definitely at the top of the list. It took the crown, the jewels and the fancy red cape.

Unless you didn't find a suit wearing infant with a _chameleon_ of all things on his fedora breaking into your house and declaring himself your tutor after dropkicking you weird.

Right?

Thought so.

Oh, and apparently, his name was Reborn. Good for him. Tsuna totally needed to know that.

Hear the sarcasm yet?

Unfortunately for him, years down the road this event would be considered one of the sanest of his life, he just didn't know it yet and could enjoy a moment of blissful ignorance.

Okay, moment over. Moving on.

"Oh, just so you don't wonder, your sister went to school early. Something about an unfinished school project." he looked up to meet his mother's eyes, trying to convey his confusion through his eyes since his moth was occupied with a piece of toast. It didn't seem to be working though, so he forced himself to swallow.

"Sister?"

She nodded cheerfully, "Mh-hm!"

"Mom, what do you-" he cut himself off when his eyes caught sight of the clock, "Crap! I'm late! Bye mom."

"Bye Tsu-kun! Have fun at school."

Tsuna grumbled something intelligible under his breath as he hurriedly put on his shoes and left the house.

As he ran, he was suddenly made aware of an unexpected weight on his head. A weight which then proceeded to identify itself as a hitman and tell him that he was the last remaining heir to a Mafia family.

"What are you talking about? Why are you even following me? Babies aren't allowed in school grounds!"

He was interrupted by the hich-pitched barking of evil and nightmares incarnate- ahem, I mean, a chihuahua. The little beast almost gave him a heart attack and brought back some horrible memories-

Nope. Not gong there.

After somehow pulling off a tactical retreat, Fortuna seemed to think she'd messed with the boy enough and instead let a blessing turn the corner to meet him.

"K-k-kyouk-ko-chan!"

"Sawada-kun, right? Good morning." chirped the angelic being that lit up his entire world and _who was that beside her?_

Standing behind said school idol were in fact two people, one of them being the familiar face of Kurokawa Hana, Kyouko's best friend. The other one, however, he did not recognize.

She was, no offense, utterly unremarkable. She was short and a bit on the thin side. Straight, dark brown hair fell down to her shoulders and framed her pale face, which he could not see well as it was turned downwards. And she was wearing...

...the Namimori Middle School uniform?

What.

No, actually: Who.

To his mounting horror, his mouth apparently decided that today was a perfect day to start working independently and voice his thoughts without permission. "Who are you?" Kyouko's expression turned mildly puzzled while Hana's remained boredly annoyed. The other girl flinched but otherwise stayed silent.

"What do you mean, Sawada? You know my cousin." Hana sent him an irritated look.

His brow furrowed in confusion, "Cousin?"

She snorted, "Yes, cousin. You couldn't possibly forget something like that. Midori's been in our class since we entered middle school!"

At the increasingly puzzled look she received, Hana snorted and walked away pulling the other two girls by their arms as she muttered something that sounded suspiciously like _"Men! They're all the the same. All of them just monkeys!"_

Eyes trailing after their retreating backs, Tsuna couldn't help but voice his thoughts out loud once again, "That was... weird." He was pretty sure he had never seen her before in his life. Then again, she might just be a devoted wallflower. – _Gaze downwards. Posture slouched. Hands fiddling with her skirt. Definitely shy enough for a wallflower._ whispered a part of his mind he tended to ignore because he found it creepy.

"You have a crush on that girl, don't you?"

"What?! I don't even know her!" He felt a surprisingly painful smack on his head.

"I meant Sasagawa Kyouko, Dame-Tsuna."

"Dam- how do you even know that name? Or know _her_ name for that matter."

The air suddenly shifted, loaded with tension and he instinctively stood ramrod straight, his mind blaring with alertness. He felt danger.

The entire atmosphere was then brought down by a squeaky, dark voice.

"I have my sources."

Tsuna shivered as he walked to school and decided that no, Reborn was in no way an ordinary baby.

* * *

><p>Tsuna had learned something new today.<p>

The self-proclaimed number one hitman in the world had a twisted, sadistic sense of humour.

Which apparently included shooting him in the face and somehow magically vanishing his clothes except for his _underwear_, making him lose control of his entire body as it rampaged around the neighborhood with simple-minded purpose _in only his underwear_, having said neighbour-terrorizing body confess to his crush _in only his underwear_, letting the disturbing effect wear off just in time for the very possessive not-even-Kyouko's-boyfriend kendo club captain to find him in a very compromising position and challenge him to a fight while he was still _only in his underwear _and watching as said girl ran away from him in terror with that thrice-damned smirk on his face.

Did he mention he did all that _in only his underwear_?

No?

Well, he did.

In only his fucking _underwear_.

No, he was not letting that go. He didn't hold grudges often, almost never really, but when he did, he could hold them for a while. A long while.

"I am not fighting the guy!"

"He challenged you. You have to go."

"He's the captain of the kendo club! I on the other hand have the athletic ability of a _stick_. Not happening!"

"Then what about the girl?"

That gave him some pause. He didn't like the way he had said that. "What about her?"

"Are you just going to leave her to deal with him? She didn't seem very uncomfortable around him."

Tsuna openly stared at the infant. Seriously? He was really pulling the be-a-real-man-and-protect-your-crush card? _Really?_

"...you are the most evil, manipulative little devilspawn I have ever met in my entire life."

That earned him a mischievous smirk, "Why thank you. I didn't know you could be such a flatterer, Dame-Tsuna."

"..."

Reborn waited for a moment, then became impatient. "They're waiting for you. Go."

"But-"

"_Now._"

"I'm going, I'm going! Just don't shoot!"

He'd just have to get this over with. The guy would beat him with a stick for a while, then lose interest and leave him alone. It always ended like that, what would be different this time?

He had never been more wrong.

* * *

><p>"Then can I call you Tsuna-kun?"<p>

He felt his cheeks burn in a way he had not even thought possible, but nodded shyly anyways. "O-of c-c-course, K-youk-ko-chan!"

She smiled and suddenly it didn't matter that he was sitting on the cold gym floor, bruised and battered, in nothing but his boxers. Not long after, she bade him farewell and exited the gym, closely followed by her best friend.

For a moment, he wondered where that other girl – Midori – had gone when suddenly bright green eyes met his own.

Apparently, someone found it appropriate to invade his personal space.

"Wah!" he jumped back and finally got a full view of the person in front of him. It was that girl.

Speak of the devil and he shall come.

No longer was she looking down or fidgeting nervously, she was looking straight at him with no hint of hesitance. "Um, hi?" he said, unsure of what else to say.

She didn't smile, but she didn't frown either. Just stared at him for a moment longer before speaking, "Don't run from your destiny, Tsuna, and be prepared. Your Storm is coming and he'll stay with you, just like all the others will. So you don't need to run away, because they'll be by your side."

She then walked up to the door, but stopped once she was almost out. "One last thing. You can't duck explosions. That's a very stupid idea." Then she left and Tsuna was seriously freaked out.

"...ooooookay... I think..."

That was... really weird.

* * *

><p>Just as he was leaving the school grounds, thankfully wearing a spare uniform that Reborn had somehow conjured up, a yell from the distance stopped him.<p>

"Tsuuuuuuuunaaaaaa! Wait for me!"

Bewildered, he turned towards the voice and after a second of searching finally found what seemed like a girl jogging towards him. This left him questioning his sanity and mental health, which in turned made him depressed that he even had to. Finally, the girl reached him and he could properly make out her features.

Long, brown, messy hair flowed behind her, tied down in a low ponytail. He glint in her (somehow familiar) brown eyes reminded him of a fox, but the rather clumsy way she walked completely shattered that impression. As she neared him, he noticed that they were pretty much the same height.

Also of note was that she was smiling at him.

Smiling.

At _him_.

Dame-Tsuna.

The guy who was ridiculed by boys and girls alike mostly without exception.

He was instantly wary, though the creepy part of his mind kept nagging him that she was no threat. "What to you want?"

She blinked owlishly at him and then burst out laughing, "My oh my. I don't see you for an entire day and suddenly you act like you don't know me. I want us to walk home together, of course."

What? This girl did not make sense. Walk home together? He didn't even know her!

"Who are you?"

She looked at him, worry and confusion almost hidden under the clear signs of an oncoming sarcastic comment. "Why, Tsuna, did you actually forget your own sister?"

The world stopped.

He brain ceased working as reality clashed with perception. This was a prank this was a prank this was a prank-

But those eyes! Those eyes revealed nothing but honesty.

"_Oh, just so you don't wonder, your sister went to school early. Something about an unfinished school project."_

It wasn't a prank. It was! It wasn't. What-

A feminine voice laced with concern cut through the chaos. "Tsuna? Are you alright?"

His... _sister?_

* * *

><p>On the morning of that same day, far away but not as far as some would think, a tall, lanky teen with wild, white hair walked through the halls of his high school, accompanied by today's asskisser.<p>

"It was awesome! I think you broke a record or something!"

He laughed lightly, inwardly wondering how to get this guy in an accident, "Maa, don't exaggerate. It was just sprinting in sports class. I wasn't really that fast."

"Not that fast? Dude, you left everyone else in the dust! Seriously, why didn't you join the track team instead of that stupid chess club?"

"I like chess."

The other boy sighed exasperatedly, "You're probably the only guy in the world who's member of a chess club and still has more girls swooning after him than the actual school idol."

"I thought I was the school idol?" he said with a slight smirk.

His temporary companion laughed nervously, "Well, not quite. I mean, you've got the money and the looks, but you don't really mingle with people. Yuu does, so that pretty much makes him the idol, even if he isn't really that well-off. At least that's what I heard some girls say a few days ago. But you're totally cool, man! I don't agree with them. I think..."

Byakuran tuned him out at this point. Every day. Every single day another pitiful student would try to get close to him, suck up to him in the hopes that they'd get the benefits of having a rich, good-looking 'friend'.

He was getting sick and tired of it.

But life was _boring_ enough as it was, so he had decided that he might as well use the situation to his advantage. Every time, he somehow manage to creatively screw these people over without them even realizing it. It wasn't quite as fulfilling as he'd hoped, but it would have to do.

Then the pain came.

All of sudden, it felt like his head was splitting open and he _screamed_. The pain was unbearable, he couldn't think, couldn't feel anything but sheer agony

And then came the images. Most of them completely unrelated, but every once in a while and image he had seen would come up again, this time slightly altered. They poured into his brain by the hundreds, thousands, millions and it felt like it would never end.

But slowly, slowly, through the haze of pain, he started connecting the dots, seeing the whole picture.

Alternate timelines. Different realities. Parallel worlds.

He could _see_ them.

As soon as that realization came, however, all the images suddenly fused, merged, until they were all one big mess of overlapping people and contradicting events. And they kept merging, becoming at last a huge mass of colour and chaos.

Slowly, maddeningly so, the pain receded, and then it was gone.

He tried to bring some order to his mind, sort out all his new knowledge. It took long, but after a while, he was able to form a clear picture, a goal.

Before he resurfaced from unconsciousness, one thought dominated his mind.

He needed to fix this and for that he had to go towards the source, the main point where this problem was concentrated.

He needed to go to Namimori.

* * *

><p>AN:<p>

and thus, we finally get the first glimpse of the actual khr world and not some weird world with aliens responsible for the distribution of souls. yay! it's midnight right now, so please forgive any vagueness or weirdness.

so here we get introduced to our firs two OCs! how exiting. also, notice how Tsuna is more sarcastic than most authors make him out to be? well, if you think that's ooc, you should go read the manga once again. he's always been this sarcastic, he's just less vocal about it, which I fixed. you're welcome.

now to chapter 13 of Redemption because if I don't finish that soon, detrametal will have a nervous breakdown.

Enjoy!

**Please leave a review on your way out. Thank you~.**


End file.
